Here in the US, if you’re in the military or work in aviation, you might actually use what most of the rest of the world thinks of as standard, 24-hour time. While it will confuse all your US-living friends and relatives when they ask for the time and you show them your iOS device’s lock screen, that’s their issue, right? You, at least, will have the joy of knowing that you are fully prepared for the type of time tracking that most people around the globe use.

The default iOS clock in the US is a 12-hour clock, with AM and PM appended to the numbers to denote morning or evening. The other, more standard way of representing the time is with the 24-hour clock, in which any time after 12:00 is the logical 13:00, 14:00, and so on. It’s really easy to set on your iPhone or other iOS device.

Head to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on General. Then, tap on Date & Time to set the preferences there.

Tap on the 24-hour time toggle, setting it to ON. You’ll now see the 24-hour clock reflected on your lock screen as well as at the top of your device screen, and in any apps that use the time, like Mail.

To go back to the US standard 12-hour clock, simply toggle this same setting to OFF.

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